Free Fellowships at FSFE

From November 2009, the Free Software Foundation Europe will be offering three free Fellowships each month to open source activists.

Anyone engaged in free software and interested in a Fellowship can send a report of their activities to the email address: fellowship(at)fsfeurope.org. Every month, the FSFE will choose the winners who will be announced the following month. The ''Fellowship'' is aimed at private persons who otherwise have to pay 60 Euro (around $90) a year for FSFE membership aka a Fellowship.

FSFE members have the right to a passive vote at the general assembly of the FSFE e.V. and are granted an active right after twelve months. They are given an FSFE mail address, an account on the FSFE planet page and access to local networks. The FSFE supports local and digital member-activities, for example, with advice and organization, IT infrastructure and public relations. Current Fellowship coordinator is Matthias Kirschner, who has held the job for the past few months.

Although only private persons can become a Fellow, companies are encouraged to donate funds, organizations can become FSFE associates. One example of a project supported by the FSFE is the online platform Pdfreaders.org.

This column looks into projects and current affairs in the world of free software from the perspective of the GNU Project and the FSF. In this issue, we take a look behind the drapes at the FSFE Annual General Meeting.